Fuji was sitting up in bed, head cocked towards the door.
"Inui, go see if you can find the doctor. Fuji-kun, go find your mother," Tezuka ordered.
"Hai!" chorused Inui and Yuuta.
Fuji and Tezuka were alone together.
"Nice hair cut…"
"Oh, yeah, haha," Fuji gingerly felt around his head.
The doctors had clipped his hair shorter in the back to perform the surgery. Whoever had brushed his hair had parted it wrong; Fuji always parted his hair in the middle, now it was parted to the side. He also had a bandage on the back of his head.
"Can you get me some water, Tezuka?" Fuji asked.
"A, ah." Tezuka got up and poured him a glass of water. He noticed that Fuji had put his hand out. "Here you go, be careful" he placed the styrofoam cup in Fuji's hand. He didn't let go however, and followed Fuji's hand with his own.
"I'm okay, Tezuka, don't worry so much about me," Fuji smiled.
There was a knock on the door.
"Syuusuke, the doctor is here to see you know. As with myself, Inui-kun, Ryuuzaki-san," Mrs. Fuji said.
"All right, Fuji, can you see this?" the doctor shined a pen light in his eye.
"Yes," Fuji said.
"Now concentrate on it, as I move it back and forth," Fuji tracked the little pen light, "Now tell me if you can see anything," The doctor said, turning off the little light as he waved his hand in Fuji's face.
"Yeah, sort of."
"Okay, now, can you tell me where the window is in the room?"
"It's over there, but I can't tell anything else," Fuji pointed at the wall with the window.
"Yes, yes, that's good," the doctor took down notes, "Well, Mr. Fuji, you can probably go home today, and even go to school when summer vacation is over next month. Did you already get into the high school you applied to?"
"Yes…" Fuji said, dismayed. He'll probably not be able to go regular classes now.
"Don't worry, we've already gotten class assignments, I'll take care of him," Tezuka volunteered.
"Thank you so much, Tezuka-kun," Mrs. Fuji said, and turned to the doctor, "Is there anything we can do?"
"Well, we can try an experimental operation, but we can't even consider that for about two weeks, he has to heal some first," the doctor offered.
A few days later, Tezuka was spending the night at Fuji's. The pair was in his room, listening to the radio. Fuji was lying on top of his bed, staring at the ceiling. Tezuka was sitting in Fuji's rocking chair. It was already late night.
"Tezuka."
"Turn off the radio." Tezuka fumbled with the switch and turned it off
"What's up?"
"What do you mean, 'What's up?' I'm so frustrated! And that Kirihara had enough nerve..."
"Any apology is better than none, Fuji," Tezuka said gently.
Earlier that day, the doorbell rang, but neither Tezuka nor Fuji was interested in getting it. A few moments later, Mrs. Fuji stepped into the room, followed by 3 boys in Rikkai uniforms.
"Syuusuke, these boys have something to say to you," Mrs. Fuji said as she left the room.
"I should introduce myself. My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi...I played Doubles 1 with..."
"Nioh! That's me." Nioh interjected.
"Nioh-kun, that's not polite. Anyhow, Fuji-san, we came to check up on you..." Yagyuu trailed off.
Fuji sat up, "I'm fine, except for this," he waved his hand in front of his face.
"And that's why we brought this," Nioh replied.
"What?" Fuji asked.
Nioh and Yagyuu grabbed their teammate and tried to force him to bow. He was smacked by Nioh before he consented.
"I'm sorry."
"GET. OUT. OF . HERE." Fuji said through clenched teeth.
"Hey, I said I was sorry!"
"This can't just be fixed with an 'I'm sorry', Kirihara," Fuji tried to calm himself.
"What's your problem?" Kirihara sneered.
-SMACK-
Yagyuu had smacked Kirihara upside the head.
"Akaya, you better make this right..." Yagyuu said after he sent him reeling.
"Kirihara! 15 laps around the Fuji house!" Tezuka who had been silent, chimed in.
"Why?"
"DO IT!"
"Yessir!"
As Kirihara was trotting around the house swearing, Yagyuu apologised again.
"We are truely sorry for what happened. If there is anything we can do, don't hesitate to contact us," Yagyuu said.
"Thank you, I'll show you out now," Tezuka got up from his spot on the rocking chair, "Be right back, Fuji."
Fuji heard another smack land on Kirihara and Nioh start laying into him. This didn't make him feel any happier, and he burst into tears.
Tezuka walked back to the room, only to stop at the door. He watched his teammate sob his heart out. He went to sit on the bed, next to Fuji.
"Oohh, Fuji..." he started, "What's wrong? Does it hurt?" Tezuka moved to pur his arm around Fuji's shoulder.
"Don't...DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Tezuka shifted his weight on the bed, and gripped Fuji's hand. "Wait a min..."
Fuji interrupted him by taking his hand back, and pushing Tezuka away. He promptly got up and sat back in the rocking chair. Fuji knew Tezuka was hurt, but not as hurt as he.
"Fuji, please listen to me, you..."
"NO! I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN ANYMORE! I JUST WANT TO GET AWAY FROM IT!"
"You have to listen to me, Fuji, please just..."
"NO! PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, TEZUKA!"
Fuji laid back down on the bed, hands behind his head. "I just don't care anymore. Whatever."
"Fuji! What do you want? I'll help you do one thing," Tezuka declared and thought to himself, "I can't let him get too depressed."
"I can't play tennis. I don't want anything besides that!" Fuji said quietly, "I'm sitting here, but I can't see. How could I could play tennis!?"
"…I understand."
"NO YOU DON'T! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, NO ONE DOES!" Fuji got up from the bed and raged, "I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS! I TRIED SO HARD, JUST FOR THE TEAM! I SHOULD HAVE NEVER DONE IT!"
"Fuji…" Tezuka's voice was starting to waver. Fuji's emotions were all over the place; Tezuka didn't know what to do.
"DON'T 'FUJI' ME! I'M SO TIRED OF THIS!" he took a step towards Tezuka and tripped on the edge of the rug.
"JUST GET OUT OF HERE, TEZUKA! I CAN'T STAND YOU BEING HERE, PITYING ME!" Fuji yelled from the floor.
"I'm not!" Tezuka stood up and grabbed Fuji's hand.
"PLEASE…just…get…out…of…here," Fuji said, concentrating his anger as he was pulled into Tezuka's embrace.
"Okay, but not without you!"
As Tezuka led Fuji out of the room, he grabbed Fuji's tennis bag from behind his bedroom door.
"Where are we going?" Fuji asked, alarmed.
"Nowhere. Now c'mon," Tezuka was literally dragging Fuji by the hand.
So far, is it okay? Much more serious than the previous chapter...
Well, I was looking at 10.5 for this scene, at Fuji's bedroom. I wonder why Fuji would have a rocking chair in his room...?